Humanism, Secularism, Feminism

Taslima Nasreen

Taslima Nasreen, an award-winning writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasreen’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s list.

Taslima Nasreen was born in Bangladesh. She started writing when she was 13. Her writings won the hearts of people across the border and she landed with the prestigious literary award Ananda from India in 1992. Taslima won The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 1994. She received the Kurt Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN, the Simone de Beauvoir Award and Human Rights Award from Government of France, Le Prix de l' Edit de Nantes from the city of Nantes, France, Academy prize from the Royal Academy of arts, science and literature from Belgium. She is a Humanist Laureate in The International Academy for Humanism,USA. She won Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Free-thought Heroine award from Freedom From Religion foundation, USA., IBKA award, Germany,and Feminist Press Award, USA . She got the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh prize for Promotion of the Tolerance and Non-violence in 2005. She received the Medal of honor of Lyon. She got honorary citizenship from Paris, Nantes, Lyon, Metz, Thionville, Esch etc. Taslima was awarded the Condorcet-Aron Prize at the “Parliament of the French Community of Belgium” in Brussels and Ananda literary award again in 2000.

Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris and Paris Diderot University in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. She got fellowships as a research scholar at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA in 2009.

Taslima has written 35 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. She has been prevented by the authorities from returning to her country since 1994, and to West Bengal since 2007.

Women get raped because women are treated as pieces of shit in misogynistic society.

Most people are angry with rapists, they do not like to call them ‘men’, they think rapists are mentally ill. They want rapists to be hanged to death or to be castrated.

But the truth is, rapists are men and they are not mentally ill. And no punishment for rapists is a deterrent. And however much you try to make rape disappear, rape and other violence against women will never go away until patriarchy and misogyny go away.

Comments

Only where they’re encouraged or permitted to be like that. Do you really believe that all these men would act this way if they’d been brought up to see women as worthy of consideration or even, gasp!, respect?

I don’t. The simple fact that rates of violence and rape, and the kinds of violence and rape, against women vary across the world tells us that it needn’t be this way. If culture generally, and families and schools specifically, have different expectations of men’s behaviour then they will behave differently.

I think in Patriarchy or in Mysoginy societies also most women are dominating Men. Becouse when ever or where ever women in those kind of society want to have sex with any Men seceretly even forcefuly manytimes, their desire fulfils. Because Men doesnot report to police as molestead or attempted to rape or even rape, as Men know it will be in vein. As women get preferences in every Low of justice.

NotYou – Let’s take this one point at a time. So those ladies who are stoned, they are using the men? They are abusing? Are you saying that the poor men are getting back at those women for all the rapes? When they throw acid in the faces of women, it is an honor thing to do to women? And finally you talk of justice. Really, I cannot see women prevailing as they were veils and are put to death.

Al Jazeera commented on Filipino workers being abused. The ladies are holed up in an embassy while politicians soft-soap the abuse.

“No balls = zero recidivism.” Actually not true. In places where chemical/surgical castration is used on sex offenders, some offenders have found they can get around it by injecting anabolic steroids. Or using something other than their genitals to penetrate. The real organ where rape originates is the one between the ears.

But how to do away with misogyny ? The answer is vast. It is the direct responsibility of the respective governments to make available education and job and good governance. Supposedly this is done still rape will not come to a final end for further various individual reasons. But I feel the crisis will be largely arrested as men in the society will have enough reasons to look forward to lead a good life than choosing to engage in crime. Government has to do its job first. In advanced societies where surely there are much better governance than India the rape rate is very low and gang rape is almost absent. Stern punishment would not be the solution. There are death sentences for murder and other crimes, still there is murder through out the world.

Very harsh punishment is required. A woman suffers rape there are no do overs. She has to suffer with this and we let scum hurt people and oh, the economy has nothing to do with rape. It is not a justification.

Larry Olson, it depends majorly in viewpoint of individuals coming from various economical background. Request you to read my post once again. I did mention that this is not the final solution. But socio-economical stability is the largest factor.
The harshest punishment could be death sentence. I am sure you will agree that even death fear cannot stop this heinous crime. But in the same breath I agree fully and demand a harsh punishment for the rapist.
I am not trying to be intellectual about the solution of the issue, I am trying to be analytical to go to the root cause of the issue. Being a male myself, I do understand that male is the problem to rape not women. I also can understand theoretically what trauma the woman passes through and carries throughout her life !

Firstly; testicles are not necessary for erection and penetration; as testicle cancer survivors can attest to.

And secondly, removing sexual urges won’t remove the motivaion to rape, as rape is NOT about sexual gratification. If a guy wants to rape someone and he can’t get it up, he’ll use whatever object he can get hold of; bottle, pipe, whatever. Probably even more physically damaging than the penis.

what about child rape? I read this dreadful news in the newspaper a couple of days ago, a nine year old kid raped and then murdered by some sick asshole. She was found naked with a piece of cloth wound around her neck the rapist must’ve used it to strangle her to death. There was no image but I could almost picture her lying dead. I can’t imagine what sort of psycho would do such a thing. Wish I could leave this F**** up country for good! I just don’t feel safe anymore.